The good, the bad and the unlikely from the continent's greatest song contest

Thursday, 31 January 2013

Norway 2013 - Gothminister - Utopia

When I first heard that those techno goth industrialists Gothminister were rumoured to be on the rosta for the third Norwegian semi-final, I bristled with delight. A cracking spot of dark and growly metallic EBM to scare the horses, I hoped.

Sadly, the reality turned out a bit less exciting, as Utopia is a serviceable but lightweight little number - kind of like an asthmatic Sisters Of Mercy mucking about with some schlager choruses. Indeed, you can almost imagine Loreen covering this song straight and everyone assuming it was one of hers.

But we mustn't grumble. If a song like this had been in the contest even ten years ago it would have been like hearing the Sex Pistols for the first time all over again. It's just a shame they didn't have the nerve to send something with a bit more poke.

2 comments:

As I;ve said, perhaps they did have nerve, but by going for something that the SchlagerQueens can 'just about' argue is schlager, they may get more people coming to their site and listening to more of their music, and having made the 'i like this' jump already, actually discover something wonderful.

What's this blog for?

Every year, the Eurovision Song Contest chucks up some amazing songs, but only a tiny few ever make it through to the televised final stages. For the couple of dozen that make it to Eurovision proper, there are hundreds that fall by the wayside in the semi-finals and local qualification tournaments. And very often that is where the true gems are to be found.

So Eurovision Apocalypse is here to dredge the best (and occasionally worst) of them out of the musical nether regions, as well as some of the other greatest oddities the contest has thrown up over the last fifty-odd years.